


Tambourine Man

by oldmythologies



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Black is a good dad, Gen, Insomnia, Shiro (Voltron)-centric, personification of everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2017-09-23
Packaged: 2019-01-04 05:30:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12162489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oldmythologies/pseuds/oldmythologies
Summary: "They knew his path well. They winked in front of him as a guide as Shiro swallowed his yawn, feet dragging. He was tired; he knew he was tired. Going to bed wouldn’t fix it; he didn’t sleep there either. There he was alone, without even the lights to keep him company. In bed, he had to close his eyes, to trap himself between his ears. It wasn’t a fun place to be. Better to make sure everyone else slept well than to waste time being afraid of the dark."A commission for sassafrassrex <3





	Tambourine Man

**Author's Note:**

  * For [SassafrassRex (Serbajean)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Serbajean/gifts).



> I hope you like it, love <3

The soft lights of the castle blinked in recognition. They knew his path. They allowed him his slow stroll past every bedroom as he listened to their soft snores and incoherent mumbling. Sometimes he would hear a breath hitch in the dark and the lights would follow him gently into the room. He reminded each of the paladins, in turn, that they were safe, and loved, and warm, and it was all okay. Everything was okay. He hushed them back to sleep before they could question where he came from or why he was always awake in the middle of the night. No matter the hour, he was always there, fully dressed, eyes clear and shoulders back.

The lights saw this, and they worried.

_ Most of the humans sleep more _ , the castle whispered,  _ why does this one not? _

The lights hummed to one another and decided to ask the lions.

_ Don’t ask me,  _ said Blue.

_ Mine doesn’t sleep much either,  _ replied Green, and Red purred her agreement.

Yellow slept through the entire conversation, hangar grumbling beneath his snores.

The lights twinkled in front of Black, their silent concern projected as clearly as if it were spelled out in morse code. He glared and they stilled.

_ My paladin is mine to deal with _ . As always, his words hushed the castle and lions alike. He never spoke with force, but behind the growl the weight of authority and years of experience carried.

The lights listened.

* * *

They knew his path well. They winked in front of him as a guide as Shiro swallowed his yawn, feet dragging. He was tired; he knew he was tired. Going to bed wouldn’t fix it; he didn’t sleep there either. There he was alone, without even the lights to keep him company. In bed, he had to close his eyes, to trap himself between his ears. It wasn’t a fun place to be. Better to make sure everyone else slept well than to waste time being afraid of the dark.

He followed the lights. He always did, putting his feet right where they were guided. They knew his path well. He would reach his destination.

He only looked up when the ground beneath him changed. He pulled his head up.

The hangar?

The lights twinkled and steadied.  _ Traitors _ . Black’s eyes were already alight.

“Black?” Shiro murmured. The bags under his eyes were even more prominent with the wrinkle in his brow under the yellow gaze.

With a great groan, creaking joints, and a low hum that didn’t travel in sound waves, Black fell onto paws in front of him. It pushed warm air forward and for a second, Shiro could almost trick himself into believing that it was Black’s own breath. His hair was ruffled in the displaced air.

The mechanical eyes dimmed in their focus, like pupils sharpening into a pinpoint of awareness. Shiro could feel Black trying to pierce his mind. Unbidden, he stared at the floor.

“What’s up?” he asked, trying and failing to sound nonchalant. He didn’t know why he felt guilty. He hadn’t done anything wrong, he knew, but if Black had brought him here, he must have done something wrong.

He remembered his father’s study: dusty, empty, and forbidden. If he ended up in his father’s study, he’d done something wrong. Back then, it seemed like everything he did was wrong.

He shook his head and forced himself to look back.

_ Look at me when I’m talking to you, Takashi. _

This wasn’t anything like that. He wasn’t eight years old and lonely, not anymore. He wasn’t eight years old. 

He pulled his shoulders back and waited for Black to respond, to growl into his mind, to huff, to do anything but stare. The metal mouth stood uncompromising in front of him.

“Why did you bring me here?” he tried again, shoulders falling incrementally.

_ Chin up, Takashi _ .

He ignored his father and let his muscles droop. It was too much work. He leaned his forehead on Black’s maw and placed his right hand flat, fingers splayed. A wave of warmth spread out from the prosthetic. It wasn’t the usual tingle of broken electricity that radiated up his nerves. It was echoed on his forehead, where skin met metal. A pain he didn’t know he was carrying melted from his brain and he sighed. He closed his eyes.

“Are you okay?” he asked the metal.

Black’s purr shook him from the inside. He let it take him, let Black into his mind. He was too tired to fight it.

_ You can’t sleep. _

Shiro shrugged. He turned his back to Black and let himself slide down, leaning back against the warmed muzzle.

“I do what I can.”

Shiro didn’t intend to say anything else, but he could feel Black’s expectancy. Shiro sighed.

“I don’t like sleeping. It’s a waste of time. There’s so much that needs to be done, and they—“

Black’s growl cut him off.

_ Don’t lie to me. Don’t lie to yourself. _

Shiro choked. His father had always been all too happy to accept his lies.  _ Yes, Father, Mother is an ever present force in my life. _

“I can’t sleep. I  _ can’t,  _ Black, you don’t know what it’s like in here, with my eyes closed and the lights off and—“

Black shot him with a feeling. He gasped in it. Zarkon, pushing and pushing and pushing, feeling his mechanisms move without consent. He felt the darkness, ten thousand years alone. He replayed the moment over and over again. What he could have done, what was done to him, and god it was so dark. Black checked his internal sensors over and over again.  _ Am I alive? I am. Am I there? I am not. I am in the castle. I am safe. _

Shiro saw himself, swallowing in the dark, over and over again.  _ Am I alive? I am. Am I there? I am not. I am in the castle. I am safe. _

“Black,” he chewed on his voice, squeezing his eyes shut to fight the sting, “you know what it’s like. You know how hard it is to sleep, when—“

This time, Shiro cut himself off, letting his eyes fall open. Blue lights. Blue lights, white walls, warm metal at his back, not cold. He was warm, and the warmth was pulling at the strained thread of his muscles, at the knots on his back, at the pulsing ache in his head.

_ You are alive.  _ Black hummed.

Shiro nodded.

_ You are not there. _

Shiro nodded.

_ You are in the castle _ .

Shiro fixed his focus on the open door in front of him, the long white hallways and twinkling blue lights. He nodded. The lights brightened and he held their light in his eyes.

_ You are warm, and you are safe _ .

This time, when he nodded, he let his eyelids close, trapping him in his mind.

This time, he wasn’t alone. The warmth at his back held him, a whisper in his mind reminded him that he was safe.

 

**Author's Note:**

> twitter [@oldmythos](https://twitter.com/oldmythos)
> 
> tumblr [@oldmythos](http://oldmythos.tumblr.com)


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